Dear Board, first please excuse and ignore my 2nd former comment posted errantly on 1/5/11.  My original was on 1/4/11.  I do not know how it became posted twice and both days are the same. 

 I offer further commets:

A summary of your Proposed Exemptions include:

1) An individual doing mold remediation of < 10ft2: 

2) An owner or managing agent  or employee performing inspections, mold clean-up on the owners residential property - for up to 4 residential units;  (VBLAH - this person needs to KNOW what they're doing, in any situation other then the homeowner assessing/repairing their own home.  How does this proposed exemption work with the current landlord tenant act?

3) Lab techs working in a lab looking at mold;

4) Pressure washers of outsides of buildings;

5)Phase 1 env. site assessments

6)PEs correctiong a moisture problem

7)Any individual applying chemicals to a wood structure for the purpose of controlling mold/pests

VBLAH,  One of the other comments posted has requested you also excempt CIHs, because of the stated reasons. I empathize with the appeal for CIHs who don't want to have to go through a "basic education and licensure" process in light of their experience.   Keep in mind that not all CIHs have experience or training in water damage restoration, nor microbiology, or should at least meet industry guidelines for standard knowledge in these fields.   I have know one CIH in VA to repeately recommend spraying bleach or other chemicals to kill mold in occupied structures (that's not usually a good idea, and against both industry and EPA guidelines).  While I have met some very intelligent CIHs, some could have very little microbial background as there are no  federal guidelines for interpretation of microbial samples. OSHA/NIOSH/EPA have no regs for acceptable numbers or sampling methods for microbes.  Certainly a  CIH trained to meet accredited industry guildines for water damage and mold remediation, should be exempted from the training program.  This again begs the question.. what are you gaining/loosing by allowing exceptions?

Interesting that the industry experts in water damage and microbial assessments (the current accredited industry experts- the VERY experts the board is proposing to license) are the ONLY ones NOT being exempted from the training -leading-to-licensing process.   I believe I can see the direction the board is thinking'; however, this makes no sense if the ideal is the help the public, yet why exempt occupations that make errors with regards to mold because they're uneducated in it.  DO NOT FORGET THAT THERE ARE CLEARLY POTENTIAL HEALTH RISKS WITH REGARDS TO MOLD EXPOSURE IN CERTAIN TYPES OF INDIVIDUALS.  Who do you want to turn loose on the public without mandating a mininum knowledge base based upon industry guidelines and national standards for safety and effectively dealing with mold indoors.   I think the board was in the right direction by saying that Phase I assessments must stop if they find mold.  Apply the 
"stop when you find it" rule to the rest of the exemptions and then let us professionals do our work.

A very real (bad) scenario:

..the maintenance man finds mold all under the bedroom window of a child's room in a rented duplex home, and under the current proposed regs has free reign to demo the wall with no training, no licensure, no education with no cognizance on the very real potential health risk he could be causing? That's assuming he actually measures the mold, and if he does let's say it measures 5 ft2. In his mind he's perfectably endorsed by these proposed state regulations (to release (as teh EPA says) massive amounts of mold spores into the environment during demolition). He won't see it that way of course, as he gets his hammer and pry bar and demos away, cleaning it up with a non-HEPA filtered shop vac re-dispersing the small spores in the environment.  One major problem being that the proposed regs call for no more than <10 ft2 TOTAL surface area of mold, he didn't even notice that when he opened the wall up.. he failed to notice or have his brain stimulated to action that that the hidden side of the wall board was more than 8 ft2 covered with mold?  If he does remember, and it actually "clicks" that he's just exceeded the < 10 ft2 rule, what then? 

Yet the professional, trained, certified, insured mold remediator "cannot touch that wall" without licensure, ( and most probably won't because he knows that more likely than not , it will be a larger damaged area than 10ft2 becuase he has the right tools and experience to determine that).   He knows that once you open the wall up, you're into it and are committed (because once you disturb it, you disturb the environment).  If he forgot to deal appropriate with the HVAC, he could have turned his demo into a housewide problem (something similar has happened in VA on several occasions w.r.t asbestos and LBPs.   So while the uneducated apartment maintenance tech can dive right in untrained/unregulated (I'm talking real world based upon what I see from time to time), the profesional  (accoring to the proposed regs) has to  convince the owner to 1) hire a state certified mold inspector to do an assessment and probably testing, and then 2) wait for the inspector to get the results back from the lab saying "yes it's mold", or "no its not", then 3) write a protocol of some sort for the remediator to impliment , and then if it is indeed over 10ft2, wait for the inspector to do a post remediation assessment.

Because the board is making State approved training a critical component to the licensure process, you should require ALL those who may have a chance to come across mold and mess it up for the public, to BE EDUCATED and DEFER to a licensed individual inspector. ITS THE UNEDUCATED/UNCERTIFIED IN MOLD WORK WHO NEED THE REGULATION TO HOLD THEM TO A HIGHER STANDARD.  Please consider some other trades that need education on what they should and shouldn't do include plumbers, drywallers, carpenters, HVAC professionals, TABB contractors, electricians, duct cleaners, etc.      Again,  I am not opposed to licensure, just exempting persons from training that well may encounter mold, but not have a clue how to safely assess, evaluate and remove it .. or most importantly, know when to leave it alone and for the professionals.  .